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Innovation

When we imagine the robots of the future, they often look and move like humans, standing up on two legs and using a pair of arms to grab and move objects. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on a different kind of robot for disaster response that's designed to move like an ape.

In space there's no atmosphere, it's never cloudy, and in geosynchronous orbits it's never night: a perfect place for a solar power station to harvest uninterrupted power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The design studio Nervous System has created a novel process that allows a 3-D printed dress to move and sway like real fabric. The bespoke software behind it, called Kinematics, combines origami techniques with novel approaches to 3-D printing, pushing the technology's limits.

The United Kingdom may seem an unlikely candidate to lead a renewable energy revolution; it doesn't have much sun for solar power, it doesn't have much space for wind power and it doesn't have giant coursing rivers for hydro.

My father grew up about two hours east of Calcutta. I remember him telling me that on a number of occasions, and at the behest of his father, he would read the dictionary by the light of a hurricane lamp.

Next month, a giant industry gathering is going to be flooded with virtual-reality experiences: the Birdly flight simulator; something that lets users confront a kaiju attack; an Oculus Rift-enabled spin on combat training; even a VR installation that lets you go to a college party. But this isn't the line-up for CES?it's the Sundance Film Festival.

Three billion miles away from Earth, in an unchartered slice of our solar system, a small space probe is shaking off its deep sleep and getting ready to become the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moons.

It's the biggest countdown for NASA since the shuttle era ended in 2011. The space agency's new Orion spacecraft is scheduled to lift off on an uncrewed test flight at 7:05 a.m. ET Thursday from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Tourists flocking to Washington, D.C., hoping to get a glimpse of President Barack Obama might not get the chance to see him in person -- but they can now get pretty close thanks to the Smithsonian Institution.

For Airbnb hosts who want to keep tabs on their homes, a full home security system might be overkill. They're expensive, and live cameras and motion detectors invade guests' privacy. So how do they make sure guests keep the volume down, aren't smoking inside and don't ransack their home?

Not since the Wright brothers flew the first powered aircraft near Kitty Hawk in 1903 has the competition been so intense. The technology that can give us the world's first affordable and easily pilotable flying car is almost here.

What if, instead of picking up a smartphone or touching a mouse, you could just say, "Remind me to buy shampoo," "Play some bluegrass music," or "How many moons does Saturn have?" in the middle of your living room?

From the realms of science fiction to science fact, the Rosetta mission reached its climax this week when when the mission's scientists succeeded in landing a washing machine-sized probe named Philae on a moving comet after a 6.4 billion mile journey.

Album sales are at an all-time low in the United States. Vinyl sales are at their highest for 15 years. Everybody says streaming is the future, yet major artists are pulling out of streaming services. And in tech-oriented Japan, CDs still account for 85% of album sales. The current state of the music industry is anyone's guess.

We might still not have jetpacks and flying cars, but another dangling promise of the technology world now seems one step closer. Virtual reality (VR) is a serious business, as confirmed by Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR for $2 billion earlier this year. Now, the makers of the highly anticipated Oculus device seem on track to deliver a consumer model, which they say is "many months," but not years, away.

From the single, centrally-positioned seat to the crash-proof frame, this Formula One-like car is an alluring piece of kit. It would make any driver stand out in a traffic jam, and it's completely road legal.

The technology sounds simultaneously fake and dangerous: Strap on a headset and send targeted electrical currents into your brain for about 15 minutes to get more energy, improve your focus or calm down.

A comet is speeding toward a close-encounter with Mars. Comet Siding Spring is expected to come within 87,000 miles of Mars at about 2:27 p.m. ET on Sunday -- very close for a comet flyby. The space rock is moving at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second).

Military work is physically demanding?and we're not just talking about soldiers on the battlefield. Travel down the chain, and you'll find plenty of positions where strength and stamina are highly valued skills.

TED talks have become an integral forum in airing ideas about tomorrow's world, and how the likes of transport and energy will be revolutionized in the future. Here, we take a look at nine of the most thought-provoking discussions on what the transformation of tomorrow will entail.

Andy Lewis' dream died when he was 16. Just out of school, the Englishman had been accepted for an elite traineeship with the army when he was hit by a truck, which resulted in most of his left leg being amputated.

It depends on mind-bending physics and ultra-cold temperatures but quantum computing could bring about a new era in processing power that promises to revolutionize everything from artificial intelligence to high finance.

The energy needs of the world could all, in principle, be fulfilled by one single source -- the sun. There are challenges in making this a reality, however: affordability first, and finding a way to capture this energy efficiently to turn it into electricity.

Birds are nice enough, unless you work at places like airports, farms, and landfills, in which case they're the sworn enemy. Today, there are a variety of tools and technologies for spooking unwanted birds?we've graduated from scarecrows to flash-bang grenades and other sophisticated armaments?but Nico Nijenhuis is undoubtedly working on the coolest. He's building robot hawks that trick lingering critters into thinking they're about to get snacked on.

With their feet dug into the sand, tourists sit in awe on the beach front, mesmerized as little sparks of electric blue light twinkle brightly in the water. The natural neon particles seem to dance across the waves as they break along the shore. And with every disturbance in the water, a pulsating flash of light is emitted.

Staring out of the glass viewports, three people sit silently in the metal sphere as it continues its descent hundreds of meters below the ocean's surface. The journey will take over an hour and the lights in the little submarine have been turned off.

Imagine you could tell Romeo that he doesn't need to take the poison to be with Juliet, warn Streetcar's Blanche Dubois not to rely on the kindness of strangers, or suggest that Jonathan Harker take his vacation somewhere other than Transylvania.

A meteorite crashed down in Managua, Nicaragua, late Saturday night, causing a loud explosion and leaving a crater 39 feet (12 meters) across, government officials said, according to The Associated Press. No damage or injuries were reported.

In an old office building at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, there's a room stacked high with plastic containers of synthetic urine. Researchers dip small white paddles into the liquid, wait for a grid of squares to change colors, and snap a photo with a custom smartphone app.

Air guitar players, bus stop drummers and office desk virtuosos, rejoice: being a slave to the rhythm has just become a lot more fun. Mogees is a new technology that turns any object into a musical instrument, by converting the vibrations you make when you touch it into sound.